Hindsight - 48 Hour Film

Hey all. So in playing post catch up, I wanted to post a video we did a while back for a 48 Hour Film Project. It was the Go Green version, so we had to do something environmental. Did we? Well, watch and find out. Here are the elements we had to include:

Theme: Saving the Future

Line of Dialogue: When does she arrive?

Prop: Camera

Character: Professor Johnson

So, I'm fairly certain we were disqualified. I don't want to brag but our film looked amazing on the big screen. We loaded it with cool cinematography, awesome music, sound design, and some pretty cool costumes. However, despite being stellar (and arguably the best in these areas) we were awarded nothing except Audience Choice Award Runner Up. But then again, I don't think our film is very environmental.

Still, it was a ton of fun to make. Nick Markham and I did all of the Post Production, with Whitney Ferris helping as a Producer. Our cast also included Kye Mou and a talented Steve Mnich, who nobody knew could act.

While Nick and I were editing, we'd realize we needed to shoot another scene here or another scene there. So we'd get back into costume, head to the location, set up a camera on me and him, and run through the scene. That's why sometimes really amazing cinematography is cut right next to a scene that has zero cuts and runs for a while.

Oh, and if you don't know who the guy at the end of the film is, check out this link: The Nellius Saga.

Award: The Yesterage

Well here is an unexpected bit of awesomeness. My film for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project, The Yesterage, was recently recognized as a Finalist in the 2010 Image Gazer Film Festival. Saweeet!


Also, I don't think I ever announced the awards that we won from the actual contest. I wish we had some photos from the awards screening. We pulled home 4 awards...

Best Directing
"The Yesterage" by 4QR98 Pass

Best Editing
"The Yesterage" by 4QR98 Pass

Best Choreography
"The Yesterage" by 4QR98 Pass

Best Film Runner-Up
"The Yesterage" by 4QR98 Pass

For us this is awesome. I want to thank my team of 3 other people for their work on this film. Alex Hersler, Ben Tuller, and Nick Markham. I still think that the film we accomplished, in the time that was given to us and with such a small crew, is pretty spectacular. So major props to team 4QR98 Pass! BEWARE: You will most likely be seeing another Nellius movie soon.

Watch The Yesterage Here.

The Yesterage - 48 Hour Film Project

My buddies and I have been doing this 48 Hour Film Racing thing for a little over a year now, and we love it. Going into it, I always dread the amount of work that is going to be required to meet my standards, because it often comes at the expense of sleep. But at the end of the 48 hours, when my body is numb and teeth are chattering from the absurd amount of caffeine in me, I feel an incredible sense of accomplishment. These weekends are by far the most productive weekends I'll ever have. In the words of Ben Tuller, who is on my team, "These are weekends I will actually remember." Troof.

Here was the assignment for this years SF race.
Genre: Fantasy (Awesome)
Character: GG Cook the Consultant
Prop: A Plate
Line: "You're not going to believe what happened."



So, ya...
I mean, our whole approach to these weekends is about having fun. We. Just. Want. To. Have. Fun. And we definitely do. But you're still probably asking "What in the world was that?" We'll leave that up for interpretation. Of course, one clue might be to watch the video that comes after this one, Nellius 5000 and Zupitron: Ultimate Battle Buddies.

The cool thing about this movie is that we made this entire thing in 48 Hours, WITH 4 PEOPLE! Our actors were our crew. That was it. We're extremely proud of our ability to make fun films look amazing, with the tiny crew that we have.

The only big difference between this online version and the version we turned in is the sound design. It's now properly mixed and I added a bunch of extra sound effects. We had all of the grading and editing done before hand, which is pretty incredible to think that we color graded in a 48 hour film. IMO, definitely worth it.

One question that was asked at the screening was, "How much of this did we prepare ahead of time?" The answer is, none of it. We fortunately had loads of props and locations from films we have made in the past. We shot this on a Canon EOS 7D with a very basic lens kit. Nothing too fancy... (we didn't get to utilize my macro lens). Hope you enjoyed it. I'm really hoping we're in the running for cinematography this year!

48 Hour Film Awards!!!

The film we submitted for the San Jose 48 Hour Film race has won 4 awards!!! Our film, Nellius 5000 & Zupitron: Ultimate Battle Buddies was shown to a large audience at the awards show. The awards we won were:

Producer's Award: Best Overacting
"Nellius 5000 and Zupitron: Ultimate Battle Buddies" by 4QR98 Pass

Best Writing
"Nellius 5000 and Zupitron: Ultimate Battle Buddies" by 4QR98 Pass

Best Choreography
"Nellius 5000 and Zupitron: Ultimate Battle Buddies" by 4QR98 Pass

Runner Up for Best Film
"Nellius 5000 and Zupitron: Ultimate Battle Buddies" by 4QR98 Pass

Here is the link to the 48HFP website where the awards are announced.

Congratulations to our team for the epic 48 hours of epic filmmaking mayhem.

Nellius 5000 (48 Hour Film)

Nellius from Jesse Tarnoff on Vimeo.

August 14th to 16th was the San Jose 48 Hour Film Race. Some friends and I have done a few of these film races before. Basically, we are given some required elements to put in our film and then have only a short period to make the film. The elements we received this time were:

Genre: Buddy Film
Prop: Piece from a board game
Character: Zack Alexander, Exterminator
Required Line: "Tell me again why this matters."

After stressing out for hours about our story, we decided that we should just have fun with the movie and make something totally over the top and ridiculous. After flushing out the gist of the story, Brian Schlotterbeck and Ben Tuller each wrote separate prologues and then we combined the best parts of both.

Our film was in the finals for the audience award, meaning we were in the top three films for the screening. We are still waiting to see if we will get nominated in other categories. We're hoping for nominations in Costumes, Sound Design, and Editing.